Yesterday the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) carried out an operation to remove a tunnel dug in Gaza by Hamas terrorists in an effort to try and kidnap more IDF soldiers, just as Hamas was involved with the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.


The IDF targeted reportedly targeted a house belonging to the Abu Hamam family (see picture below) near the border with Israel in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah region.


A day after the operation, Hamas reportedly fired 35 Qassam rockets targeting Israeli civilian population centers, including Ashkelon 15 miles north of Gaza.

Not only do they get slammed by a Palestinian human rights group that alleges Hamas shot and killed 10 members of Gaza’s Soprano-like Dagmoush / Dugmoush clan — including an 18 month-old toddler and a 16 year-old teen, but now Hamas is throwing a temper tantrum over Egypt’s continued mediation efforts over the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.


The London-based Saudi newspaper Asharq Alawsat reports that Hamas is attempting to add a new condition to resume negotiations over Shalit, by insisting that Egypt release Palestinians arrested by Egyptian security forces in January following the Hamas-led collapse of Gaza’s border fence with Egypt near the Rafah crossing.

An unnamed Hamas pundit cried to the newspaper, “[i]t is unreasonable for Egypt to mediate between us and Israel so as to reach a prisoners’ swap deal while at the same time detaining our elements unjustly.”

Every country has the right to arrest and detain those who attempt to cross its borders illegally.  Why should Egypt be treated any differently?

If there is any injustice, it is Hamas’ patently illegal ongoing role in the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit from inside Israel to Gaza, a role recently highlighted by British reporter Christine Toomey.

According to Asharq Alawsat, Hamas is so upset about Egypt’s role in mediating Shalit’s release, that some members of the terrorist group want to have European or Arab countries replace Egypt in the process.

But Egypt is an Arab country.  Hamas’ foolish temper tantrum should fall on deaf ears.

Hisham al-Labadani, secretary to Hamas terrorist figurehead Khaled Meshal, was reported by a Syrian opposition group to have been assassinated after being dragged from his car in Syria’s city of Homs.


The Reform Party of Syria (RPS) reported today that al-Labadani “was dragged from his car and shot dead in daylight in the city of Homs.”

According to the RPS,

Operatives close to the event told RPS that al-Labadani’s murder is a signal some in the Assad regime were sending to Hamas [for its] continued cooperation with the IRGC of Iran. The group, led by Mohammad Nassif Kheir Bek, has been promoting rapprochement with the west against the entrenched supporters of the Iranian influence in Syria who have gained key positions lately.

Homs is less than 50 km from Lebanon’s mountainous Northeastern border with Syria (Inset):

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Iran’s long history of military, financial, and terror support for Hamas is well documented.

On March 9, 2008, the The Sunday Times reported that a senior Hamas commander boasted that 300 of the organization’s “best brains” were secretly sent to Iran for military training from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard:

“Iran is our mother,” the commander said. “She gives us information, military supplies and financial support.”

The Sunday Times report said that since 2005, at least seven (7) separate groups of Hamas fighters trained with Iranian instructors so that they could be snipers, make explosives out of everyday items, and make deadlier rockets to use in terrorist attacks against Israel.

Israel has long known about Iran’s role in equipping, financing, and training Hamas terrorists to carry out attacks against Israel. The New York Times reported last August that:

Hamas has sent hundreds of its fighters abroad for military training, most of them to Iran, the Israeli Army’s deputy chief of staff says, and Israel has the names of more than 100 of them